Friday, April 24, 2009

Susan Boyle singing I Dreamed a Dream with such poignancy captured the world’s attention for epitomizing the triumph of the human spirit. I, too, was fascinated with it but for a very different reason.

I dreamed a dream in time gone byWhen hope was high and life worth livingI dreamed that love would never dieI dreamed that God would be forgiving

Her singing that song reminded me of those days in high school when we had our very own production of Les Miserables. Though only a few played the juicy parts (Edwin as Valjean, Joe as Javert, Rebekah as Fantine, Christine as Cosette, Zarah as Eponine and Carlo as Marius), and most of us, including me, are mere street sweepers and students shouting for “one more day to revolution”, I am sure all of us remember—to this day—the songs from Les Miserables. We spent months preparing for the production and in those months all we heard were those songs being played again and again and again. Some probably hated the whole thing; but being bombarded with it every day, we can’t help but memorize the words, lilt, tempo, pitch, and melody of each song.

Of all Les Miz songs, this is my favorite:

Do you hear the people sing?Singing a song of angry men?It is the music of a peopleWho will not be slaves again!When the beating of your heartEchoes the beating of the drumsThere is a life about to startWhen tomorrow comes!

Will you join in our crusade?Who will be strong and stand with me?Somewhere beyond the barricadeIs there a world you long to see?

Then join in the fightThat will give you the right to be free!!

As a wide-eyed high school student, it gave me a sense of hope – when we become that angry and fed up with what’s happening, we will find the strength to fight and stand for the world we want to see and live in. Sixteen years later and less wide-eyed than before, I still cling to that sense of hope.

"If you are called to be a street sweeper, sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.'"